Bird Feeders or Hanging Trash?

It's winter. 
I want to feed the birds.
Bird Feeders from the store are expensive.
So, we could make our own.  Searching on the internet results in many directions for how to make birdfeeders from household materials including:  peanut butter jars, milk jugs, detergent bottles, sticks, coat hangers, all stuff we have around the house.
So far, the three kinds I've tried are difficult to make, more difficult to refill, and, quite frankly, ugly and look like trash.

Forced Air Central Heating is AWESOME

Well, after several weeks of tinkering with it ourselves, I finally got the DH on board with calling a certified repairman to work on the furnace. 
Liquid Propane is not a gas to be trifled with, if you didn't know.  Being heavier than air, a gas leak can fill a basement with fumes.  From that point, the ignition of the furnace or a water heater, or any number of other things can cause a catastrophic explosion.  The only upside to such an explosion is that it usually "blows itself out", whatever that means in "Volunteer Fire-ese". 
Now, How?, you might be asking, does this apply Beige Recyclables?  Well, in researching the furnace online while we were trouble shooting to find out what its problem was, I discovered that the poor little furnace is actually a Mobile Home furnace.  Oddly enough, made by Coleman, the camping people.  And, yet, somehow it made it's way into the quasi-basement, glorified crawl space of a 1911 Four Square Craftsman farmhouse with about 2500 sf of living space.  Hmmm, I'm thinking my Engineering friends would go pale if asked to do the calculations on that heating load.  So, it's probably a miracle that it has kept us this warm for this long.
And, I am so glad that the repair-guy could find a part to repair it at all, and really thankful that the whole saga added up to a little under $1000 when all was added up.  It could have been so much more.
So, we'll be taking as much advantage of those Insulation Tax Credits as possible.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.........

Christmas already!

Wow, just finished another awesome Christmas with the family!
One more thing to be grateful for this year.  Family.
Love them all, every one of them.
The tall and the small, the young and the old, the loud and the quiet.
Christmas Eve service with everyone holding a candle with a little paper collar.  Staying up too late talking and rocking babies that can't get to sleep 'cause they're not home in their own bed.  Christmas Sunday service was an added blessing this year.  Can't remember very often that a Christmas has been on Sunday.   Lots of Pew-time made the matriarch of the clan extra proud and happy.  She deserves it, she's earned it.
Movies, and singing and games.  The Kids:  the kids that were little ones just a blink of an eye ago and now sharing their newborns with us.  So many kids in this family that the generations overlap with Cousins having toddlers that are older that the youngest of the Cousins.  How can anyone ever grow up with out Cousins? 
The weather was sooooo mild here this year.  No Snow at all.  Sure, it was muddy out in the field, but the kids could run all over the farm.
Turkey & Stuffing and Riced Potatoes, home canned green beans, warm bread, and Jello Salad and Chex Mix, Pies (6 kinds), holey moley CARB OVERLOAD. 
Sorry we've lost the family members that had such problems with Diabetes.  Mindfull that the Diabetic Train is shining it's light at the end of my genetic tunnel. 

Raising Hope TV show

Have you seen Raising Hope?  Does it strike a chord?  Is this more reality than anyother show we've seen for a long time?
  They have a whole episode called "Dream Hoarders".
  Hitting way too close to home...........

Weekend Project Tip of the Week #2

Have you ever been to the "Instructables" website?  I personally love it!
So, this week's Weekend Project Tip is how to make a Center Pull Ball of Yarn; By Hand (with No Tools At All).  Actually, this was supposed to be posted last Friday, and I guess I hit Save instead of Post.

I have wanted a "ball winder" for years.  Drooled over them in catalogs and in yarn shops.  They seem so magical.  But, they're expensive. 
The other option is a Nostpine, Nostepin, Nostepinne - How is it supposed to be spelled anyway?  Which can be a beautifully carved piece of exotic wood - or a stick.
So, when I found this instructable and started using this technique, it solved so many problems.

1. It's free!  God gave me the fingers and they still work
2. I can't loose it, or pack it away, or forget it at home.  Fingers are always with me (so far).
3. The parts won't wear out, get jammed up, or chewed by the dog.  Well, the fingers will do all of those things, but, you know what I mean.
4. I can make the ball of yarn any size that I want to.  All the storebought ball winders that I have ever seen have a specific size ball in mind with their design.  What if I've got a tiny bit of yarn that I want in a ball?  What if I want to wind a whole pound of yarn into one huge ball?
5. I can use even my own lumpy home spun yarn that I did myself.  The mechanical ball winders can be very finicky on what weight of yarn and the texture of the yarn they will handle.

Yeah for Free !  Organic, Green (well kinda beige actually), Reusable, Multipurpose, ........

Scrape Windshields Carefully

Just so you know, in case you didn't, don't scrape your vehicle windows with things that will scratch the glass.
An aluminum can makes a good emergency ice scraper, but it can leave marks that may never come off.
It probably doesn't matter if it was a pop can or a beer can, except it's much more difficult to explain empty beer cans in your vehicle.
 They look kind of like scratches in the glass, but they're really probably bits of aluminum left behind.  We've been trying to get these darned marks off the windshield for a couple of years now.
Just Sayin'

Frozen Pipes

Have you ever tried to explain Frozen Pipes to City People?  Especially 20 something City People?  Just one of the many times that I personally witness the irony of City People portraying Country People as the less intelligent of the species.
The farmhouse has frozen pipes, again.  Snow Days for the kids to be out of school are great, especially when the pipes are frozen.
Yesterday morning, the Shower Drain was the most urgent.  That was thawed by noon for the teen to shower (which the rest of the family really appreciated).  Hours of shoveling snow and building snow forts make for a smelly teen.  And the scent of damp socks in snow boots was overwhelming.
By yesterday evening, the clothes washer drain was spewing soapy water all over the kitchen.  Being the handy-family we are, we were able to find a 5 gallon Dry Wall Compound bucket to drain it into, so that load of jeans finally got washed and rinsed.  We are now all more fully aware of exactly how much water it takes to do a load of laundry.  And how heavy a 5 gallon bucket of soapy water is.  And how the shower drain, if not frozen, will drain out faster than the vanity sink that only holds about 1 gallon of water before overflowing.
All of these are lessons that city kids miss the chance of learning on snow days!
This morning, the shower was draining, and there was hot water, but a few minutes into the shower it was discovered there was no cold water to the showerhead.  Did you know that means that the water was too hot?  The first idea that might come up is to let the water run until most of the hot is used up and then the water will be cool.  That really only works for a few seconds of nice warm water, and then it gets progressively cooler until it's too cold to shower in.  We found that out last year.  But, on the other hand, a tub filled with only hot water until the hot runs out will eventually become tepid enough to bathe in.  Once, just for a few minutes.  And it is a chance to have a steam sauna spa experience without the expense of installing the expensive sauna. 
Next week we will look at how Problem Condensation can lead to home damage and Black Mold........